NEW ARTICLE -- Out There, Exhibit 57: The Jefferson Freakouts
Topic: The ConWeb
The ConWeb just can't deal with the idea that Thomas Jefferson may have fathered a child with one of his slaves. Plus: WorldNetDaily's Ellis Washington embraces a discredited book about Jefferson. Read more >>

Erik Rush's Anti-Gay Tirade
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Erik Rush unleashes a massive anti-gay rant in his Feb. 5 WorldNetDaily column:

Private organizations that ostensibly have the right to discriminate all they like have been placed under tremendous pressure in recent years by a militant homosexual lobby that wishes to normalize the popular perception of homosexual behavior. I am convinced that many of its “true believers” aren’t even aware they are merely pawns of the radical left, but given the latter’s tenacious modus operandi, otherwise intelligent, conscientious people have nonetheless subscribed to the prevailing propaganda proffered by an agenda-driven press and the homosexual lobby.

Then, there’s the ongoing discussion and legislation relative to homosexual “marriage.” Like black Klansmen and male sorority sisters, “gay marriage” simply doesn’t exist. Oh, we have monogamous homosexual couples playing house, and certain states issuing marriage licenses to them, but there’s no marriage there. This is because marriage is not a civil union; it’s an ordained one.

I continue to find this amusing, despite the clear and present danger it represents to our culture. Here we have the opponents of this farcical instrument of societal destruction actually engaging in the debate over whether or not to “allow” something that simply doesn’t exist.

In the case of the Boy Scouts of America, they have simply bought into – or very nearly bought into – the aforementioned pro-homosexual propaganda. Here, we have the fact that homosexuals do not account for the percentages that activists tout; in reality, 1 to 3 percent of the overall population is probably fairly accurate. The entertainment media and the press would have us believe that it is closer to 10 percent, and if you watch television, you’re likely to surmise that every third person you set eyes on is homosexual.

There’s much more, of course: The widespread myth that homosexuality is normal rather than aberrant, that it is hard-wired into individuals rather than being a persuasion or choice, that it is not harmful to society, and that it is not harmful to children. One particularly dangerous fallacy advanced by homosexual activists is that pedophiles (such as those who have been charged with molesting Boy Scouts over the years) are not homosexuals.

These submissions against better judgment are analogous to capitulating to a developmentally disabled child who wants to play with matches simply because they have been persistent in their requests to do so. Obviously, the child does not know better; as the developmentally sound individual present, it is that person’s responsibility to refuse his or her requests, not defer to them.

Actually, pedophiles aren't homosexuals -- pedophiles tend not to have an adult sexual orientation. And only 4.4 percent of characters on TV are gay or lesbian, not "every third person" as Rush claims.

Also: Is Rush really likening gays to a "developmentally disabled child"? Sure looks that way.

Newsmax Fawns Over Dick Morris' CNN Appearance
Topic: Newsmax

After lovingly teasing Dick Morris' first TV appearance on CNN following his dismissal from Fox News -- which obscured the fact that Morris has an abysmal record of punditry -- a Feb. 6 article by Todd Beamon on the CNN appearance keeps up the fawning.

Beamon led off by calling Morris a "Leading political analyst and best-selling author" and noted that he "defended his record of political predictions":

He also noted his long track record of electoral successes as a campaign strategist electing two U.S. presidents and 14 heads of state around the world, including Bill Clinton's surprise comeback re-election in 1996.

During his tenure at Fox, Morris recalled that he accurately predicted the election of George W. Bush in 2000, his re-election in 2004, the GOP's loss of both Houses in 2006, Obama's win in 2008, and the Republican landslide of more than 60 House seats in 2010.

Needless to say, Beamon won't tell you the lies Morris told during the interview -- one of which Beamon uncritically repeated. As Slate's David Weigel details, Morris did not guide Clinton's 1996 re-election because he was ousted from the campaign two months before the election because of his infamous toe-sucking prostitution scandal.

While Beamon couldn't be bothered to do any basic fact-checking, he did make sure to inform us that Morris is "popular" and "appear[ed] relaxed in a sports jacket and an open-collared Oxford shirt."

Napolitano At WND: Obama Can Legally Kill Beck, O'Reilly
Topic: WorldNetDaily

While there are legitimate questions about President Obama's use of drones to kill terrorists, Andrew Napolitano goes all conspiratorial in a Feb. 6 interview with WorldNetDaily:

The judge said it’s very easy to read the administration’s legal defense for the drone program and see how it could be used to target any American.

“The language in this 16-page document could easily apply to Americans in America,” said Napolitano. “So the president could decide that Bill O’Reilly or Glenn Beck or Judge Napolitano are just too troublesome, too meddlesome, too much of an obstacle to the accomplishment of his purposes, and it’s time to take them out.

Napolitano spouts a lot of conspiracy theories. He's also a 9/11 truther.

Crossroads Spokesman Is Correct: Brent Bozell Is A Hater
Topic: Media Research Center

The battle between Karl Rove's American Crossroads group -- which has created an operation to promote electable Republican candidates over right-wing extremists -- and self-proclaimed "real" conservatives has ramped up considerably.

During a radio show appearance, Crossroads spokesman Jonathan Collegio called Media Research  Center chief Brent Bozell, who has led opposition to the Crossroads project, a "hater" for opposing it, adding that Bozell has "a long, sordid history, like, hating Karl Rove, too. So he has, like, a weird personal axe to grind."

In response, several right-wing leaders have issued a letter proclaiming Bozell to be "a beloved and critically important player in American history" and demanding that Collegio be fired.

But Collegio is right -- Bozell is a hater who has personal axes to grind.

Check out Bozell's mean-spirited farewell to the Clinton administration in which he spewed numerous insults. Or his vicious verbal attack on a liberal analyst for daring to disagree with him in a TV appearance. Or the numerous other examples of hateful and unhinged rhetoric he has spewed, including calling President Obama a "skinny ghetto crackhead."

Collegio is correct to question whether someone who acts like a foul-mouthed bully is a legitimate conservative leader. Will Bozell's defenders admit his legacy of hate, or will they continue to whitewash it?

WND Still Hiding Farah's No-Show For Breakfast He Denied He Was Disinvited From
Topic: WorldNetDaily

As we've detailed, WorldNetDaily made a huge deal out of denying that editor Joseph Farah being disinvited from an inauguration day prayer breakfast after apparently getting the breakfast's organizer to repudiate her previous public statements about it -- the same breakfast to which Farah was a no-show anyway.

Weirdly, WND is still promoting this breakfast, and hiding Farah's no-show.

A Feb. 5 WND article rehashes what speaker (and Farah buddy) Jonathan Cahn said at the breakfast, once again ignoring the WND-generated controversy over Farah's invitation. The only mention of Farah in the unbylined article is that he was producer of a video accompaniment to Cahn's prophecy book "The Harbinger."

CNS' Strategically Vague Obama-Gays-Boy Scouts Headline
Topic: CNSNews.com

President Obama said in a Super Bowl interview on the subject of gays being allowed into the Boy Scouts:

My attitude is that gays and lesbians should have access and opportunity the same way everybody else does in every institution and walk of life, and the Scouts are a great institution that are promoting young people and exposing them to opportunities and leadership that will serve people for the rest of their lives, and I think that nobody should be barred from that.

Here's how CNS synthesized that into a headline for a Feb. 4 article by Susan Jones: "Obama: Boy Scouts Should Expose Homosexuals to Opportunities."

The typical right-wing CNS reader will automatically fill out the rest of that strategically vague sentence with "... to have sex with little boys." And that presumably was the intent, what with the anti-gay agenda of CNS' parent organization, the Media Research Center.

WND's Farber Warns Against 'Homogrifying' Boy Scouts
Topic: WorldNetDaily

America, have you gone mad? Don’t you remember being a 12-to-15-year-old boy? And weren’t you girls “awakening” at about the same age? Don’t you realize that homogrifying the Scouts would hijack the very mission of scouting and turn the organization into a beehive of erotic exploration? I don’t fear gay boys hitting on straights as much as I fear straights asking, “What’s this ‘gay’ stuff all about? Is there anything in it for us?” I also fear for the safety of young gays who, innocently or opportunistically, give a wrong smile or say the wrong thing to the wrong straight. In our Southern culture, you weren’t a “man” until you’d “slugged a queer” who approached you. I failed the test. I always just rejected the advance and got out of there.

The battle to diminish youth sex was lost – surrendered – with the schoolhouse condom giveaways. To a young teenager, that was the grown-up world telling you, “We know you’re going to do it, and we want to help you do it right.” And what message would the welcoming of gays into the Boy Scouts send? “Gay-play must be OK, or the grown-ups wouldn’t allow us to be camping, swimming, showering, sleeping, horsing around and walking through the woods together!” Admitting gays openly into the Boy Scouts is rather like insisting cigarettes be lit as close as you can get to the nozzle while the gasoline is being pumped.

From condemnation to condone-nation in one parade! The Nazis didn’t have it that easy in Norway.

-- Barry Farber, Feb. 5 WorldNetDaily column

Newsmax Hides Dick Morris' Abysmal Record of Punditry
Topic: Newsmax

Dick Morris was a longtime fixture at Newsmax before jumping to Fox News -- and Newsmax manages Morris' mailing list -- so it's not a surprise that Newsmax would play down Morris' abysmal record of political punditry. It is surprising, however, to see ust how far Newsmax is taking it.

A Feb. 5 Newsmax article by Bill Green breathlessly declares that "all eyes
are turning to Morris' upcoming appearance on CNN Wednesday night," where he will "discuss his mysterious disappearance from Fox since shortly after last November's election" and the news that Fox declined to offer a new contract to him.

Of course, there's nothing "mysterious" about Morris disappearing from Fox. After enthusiastically predicting that Mitt Romney would defeat President Obama in a landslide -- one of many Morris statements that proved to be spectacularly wrong --  Fox News management declared after the election that anyFox show that wanted Morris (and similarly wrong Fox pundit Karl Rove) to appear would have to get special permission to do so.

To cap things off, Green concludes his article this way:

Fox's rating have fallen dramatically in the wake of last year's election. Press reports indicate the cable channel is re-evaluating its approach after President Obama's strong re-election victory, despite the fact a number of Fox hosts and analysts predicted otherwise.

That's right -- in an article about Dick Morris, Newsmax highlights how some Fox analysts predicted Romney would win without specifically stating that one of those people is Dick Morris.

It's not like Newsmax didn't know -- not only did Newsmax publish an article before the election about how Morris is  "sticking by his prediction that Mitt Romney will win in a landslide," it published Morris' post-election mea culpa.

It seems that Newsmax has kicked off a reputation rehabilitation project for Morris the way it has done with other disgraced conservatives like Bernard Kerik.

WND Columnist Ludicrously Portrays Obama As Emperor
Topic: WorldNetDaily

The last time we checked in on WorldNetDaily columnist Marisa Martin, she was ridiculously blaming President Obama for causing the TSA to detain an artist who wore a watch that looked suspiciously like a bomb. She's at it again in her Jan. 31 WND column, this time likening Obama to Napoleon for purportedly caring a lot about his press:

Two centuries later the White House is similarly inhabited by a man obsessed with public opinion and attempting a government made in his image. Streams of rhetoric gush from paid barkers and their collaborating machines (formerly known as the free press.) President Obama is variously compared to JFK, Lincoln, FDR or other titans of humanity with virtually no specific similarity or substance mentioned. Strike a pose and presume ignorance of the masses – and it’s been working.

[...]

Leaders with world-class egos can be dangerous when slighted. In China, Iran and Russia, naughty press people who just don’t understand the rules have disappeared. Fortunately, we have no such problems in the U.S., as most newscasters and big networks believe exactly what they’re told by the administration and are never unreasonably skeptical. This makes me feel so much safer.

Of course, Martin fails to mention that there is a free press in America, and that the owner of the website that publishes her anti-Obama rants, one Joseph Farah, is even more anti-Obama than she is -- to the point of publishing complete and utter lies about the president, making him a propagandist even more pernicious than what Martin claims the mainstream media to be --  and that he has never so much as been compelled to correct the record, let alone be thrown in jail for countering the "emperor." The president has the makings of a successful libel case against WND, yet one has not been filed.

Then again, in the court of public opinion, it has been concluded that nobody believes WND.

Martin concludes: "How much high-tech propaganda can be used against Americans without rousing our suspicions -- and how many artists and writers are willing to create it?" Martin is engaging in her own high-tech propaganda by having her rants published at one of the most notorious propaganda mills in the country, so she might want to rethink this whole thing.

Bozell Claims No "Serious" Group Celebrates Abortion Doctor's Death, Forgets About Randall Terry
Topic: Media Research Center

In his feb. 1 column, Brent Bozell takes exception to a documentary about abortion after the murder of abortion doctor George Tiller, in which one of the participants says that "When abortion doctors are assassinated, the political right has celebrated those assassinations." Bozell thundered, "This is a flagrant, shameless lie. Not one serious pro-life group on the political right has done that."

Bozell is silent, however, about his links to an anti-abortion extremist who essentially did just that. 

After Tiller's murder, Randall Terry danced on Tiller's grave, declaring that Tiller was a "mass murderer" and "was one of the most evil men on the planet; every bit as vile as the Nazi war criminals who were hunted down, tried, and sentenced after they participated in the 'legal' murder of the Jews that fell into their hands." As we've documented, CNSNews.com, which is a division of Bozell's Media Research Center, never reported that statement.

The MRC was until recently so simpatico with Terry's extremist videos that its MRCtv hosted Terry's videos. An October press release issued by Terry criticizes the MRC for taking down his video attacks on Samuel L. Jackson for an election-season video he made. The press release claims to quote an MRC official as saying that "While I may personally sympathize with the content, rules are rules and MRCTV cannot run political ads for campaigns."

Interestingly, for all his fulimation about how "not one serious pro-life group" expressed happiness at Tiller's death, at no point in his column does Bozell express outrage about it. Instead, he bashes the filmmakers for having "celebrated the abortionist."

WND's D.J. Dolce Picks Up Bogus Obama Library Story
Topic: WorldNetDaily

The painfully unfunny D.J. Dolce (aka Mrs. Molotov Mitchell) promotes a lie in her Feb. 5 WorldNetDaily video, claiming "Plans for Obama's presidential library are under way, but they have to tear down President Reagan's childhood home to make room for parking."

As we've detailed, a location for the library has not been chosen yet, and the University of Chicago Medical Center is planning to tear down the house where Reagan lived for a year at age 4 for its own uses.

Dolce then descends into a bitter, hateful anti-Obama rant about him purportedly wanting to turn the White House into a mosque.

NewsBusters' Sheppard Promotes Dubious Concussion Claim
Topic: NewsBusters

A Feb. 3 NewsBusters post by Noel Sheppard uncritically promotes a claim by sports announcer Jim Nantz that "a women's soccer player is two and a half times more likely to suffer a concussion than a college football player." Sheppard adds a whine that "America's media today for the most part seem hellbent on watering down such activities without regard to the actual statistics across the landscape of these sporting events," concluding, 'Of course, why should anyone be shocked by media members not caring about facts?"

Actually, it appears that the lack of care about facts belongs to Nantz and Sheppard. Jason Lisk at Big Lead Sports does the fact-checking that Sheppard can't be bothered to do:

He cites “research.” Is it published somewhere? If it is, I cannot find any reference to it. I’ve searched for several hours and haven’t turned up any particular study that comes close. I’ve found others that involve research on concussions in college and high school, but cannot find any that are anywhere close to this number.

Here’s what I can generally say, based on reviewing the research. Female athletes appear to be more likely to sustain concussions within the same sport as males. This is true for basketball and soccer, according to multiple sources. CBS News, in fact, the same network where this appeared, had previously reported 64% increases for soccer by women vs. their male counterparts, and 300% in women’s basketball vs. men’s basketball. (Here’s another book excerpt with similar discussions). There is also reference that women have a higher traumatic brain injury rate in car wrecks, and that is about 2.5 times more likely, the only time I can find a similar number.

Of course, why should anyone be shock by Sheppard not caring about facts?

Colin Flaherty Race-Baiting Watch
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily's resident race-baiter Colin Flaherty has been on quite the tear lately.

In a Jan. 30 article, Flaherty does his usual blaming of "black mob riots" for incidents at a mall in Indianapolis. He writes that "Police and local media attribute the problem to 'unruly teens' – which local residents say is politically correct coded speech for black people," but he quotes no "local residents" who say that.

In fact, the local paper does point out that  the incidents at the mall are "almost all involving juveniles" -- telling us it's a youth problem, not a black problem.

Flaherty used a Feb. 1 article to highlight a case in which a black man admitted to shooting a white woman because he said he was "trying to prove a point that Europeans had colonized the world, and as a result of that, we see a lot of evil today." Flaherty cites "a prison psychologist who did not wish to be identified" as claiming that "racial resentment is the new mother’s milk of education." Flaherty doesn't explain why anyone should take seriously the opinion of a "prison psychologist" who is hiding behind anonymity.

On Feb. 2, Flaherty touted a security guard who used a Taser on a "crazy lady" who managed to "threaten, cuss, assault, spit, challenge and call Long every racial and sexual epithet imaginable." Flaherty doesn't seem to consider that the woman's problem is that she was crazy and not that she was black.

And on Feb. 4, Flaherty is back to painting all blacks as violent thugs who are out to rob and/or kill you:

Seattle may not have the day-in, day-out, racial violence of a Chicago, or the peculiar racial anarchy of small-town Peoria. But more and more people are paying attention to the increasingly visible and brutish mayhem groups of black people are visiting on a pregnant woman, veterans, old people, young people, “gay” people, Asians and everyone in between. Right there in good old Seattle.

In Flaherty's mind, it seems, if you're black, it's only a matter of time before you form a "mob" and unlease "mayhem."

CNS Touts Ray Lewis Religious Quote, Ignores His Link to Double Murder
Topic: CNSNews.com

A Feb. 4 CNSNews.com article by Melanie Hunter promotes how pro football player Ray Lewis said after his Baltimore Ravens won the Super Bowl, "When God is for you, who can be against you?"

Hunter doesn't mention that Lewis is perhaps a flawed messenger for a religious message given his alleged links to a double murder more than a decade ago.

The Washington Post details how Lewis was linked to two men who were stabbed to death in Atlanta in 2000. Lewis was initially charged in their deaths, though those charges were dropped and he eventually pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice. But traces of one victim's blood was found inside the limousine Lewis used, the suit he wore that night has never been found, and Lewis has paid millions of dollars to settle civil lawsuits by the victims' families.

Apparently, according to Hunter, being linked to murder is OK if Lewis is spouting Bible verses now.